A350 engine shutdown incidents linked to cockpit drink spills
Airbus and Rolls-Royce are investigating two incidents in which A350s experienced uncommanded in-flight engine shutdown after drinks were spilled on controls situated on the cockpit centre pedestal.
FlightGlobal understands that the airframer is to discuss the matter with operators on 30 January, and will issue a transmission on recommended practices for handling beverages on the flightdeck.
One of the incidents involved a Delta Air Lines A350-900 en route to Seoul on 21 January, which diverted to Fairbanks after its right-hand Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine shut down, while a similar event occurred to another carrier in November last year.
[...] The previous incident, on 9 November 2019, occurred about 1h after tea was spilled on the centre pedestal, FlightGlobal understands.
Apparently, waterproofing keys is against the spirit of Airbus engineering as membranes cost way too much.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 02 2020, @08:41PM
I can pretty much assure you, that if you spill your drink inside of any computerized system, bad things are going to happen. If there are computers beneath your console, the drinks can eventually leak down to them. In fact, there IS a module for the transmission almost directly beneath my console. There is no evidence that any of my spills has ever leaked through, and dripped onto that module, but if it does, my tranny may or may not continue to work.